the effective team

The Effective Team

Uberto Barbini / Gama-Soft ltd.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

About me

Uberto Barbini

Software artisan

Agile enthusiast.

Hobby: photography and the game of Go.

Team-leader and Architect for Vodafone editorial and backend products.

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Peter F. Druckerfor developers

(1909-2005)


”He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory and practice.

His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth

century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive

importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its

necessity of lifelong learning.” Wikipedia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management

The Effective ExecutiveFirst published in 1967Still the best book on managing oneself

“That one can truly manage other people is by no means adequately proven. But one can always manage oneself”

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Who is an executive?

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Who is an executive?•CEO, CTO, CIO?

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•VP?

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•VP?

•Program Manager?

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•VP?

•Program Manager?

•Team leader?

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•VP?

•Program Manager?

•Team leader?

•Developer?

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I have called ‘executives’ those knowledge workers who are

expected by virtue of their position to make decisions that have significant

impact on the performance and results of the whole.

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And whether chief executive or beginner, he needs to be effective.


Effectiveness

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Effectiveness•The executive job is to be effective

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•effectiveness cannot be taughteffectiveness is not a subject, it’s a discipline

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•effectiveness cannot be taughteffectiveness is not a subject, it’s a discipline

•effectiveness can be learned5 practices as training scales when at Piano lessons

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Effectiveness1. Know Where Your Time Goes

2. Outward Contributions

3. Build on Strength

4. Priorities

5. Effective Decisions

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1.Know Thy Time

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1.Know Thy Time• record where your time goes

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• A scrap of paper and a clock

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• A scrap of paper and a clock• Review the records

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• how can I use better my time?

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• how can I use better my time?• Decrease wasted time (muda)

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• how can I use better my time?• Decrease wasted time (muda)• Delegation (redefine your goals)

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Know Thy TimeIt worked

for us


Time spent on misalignments

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for us



• All the team in a room

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for us




• Team chat

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for us




• Team chat

• Daily standups

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for us


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for us


Too many distractions

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for us



• Allow work from home (for special tasks)

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for us




• Single Point of Contact for the inter-teams

communications

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for us




• Single Point of Contact for the inter-teams

communications

• Boxed time meetings with clearly defined

agenda12


for us


2.What Can I Contribute?

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2.What Can I Contribute?• Focus on contribution

results rather than efforts

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results rather than efforts• Teamwork possible

how others will use my output?

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results rather than efforts• Teamwork possible

how others will use my output?• What self-development do I need?

what I need to learn? what standards do I have to set myself?

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How to improve our output?

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What Can I Contribute?It worked

for us



• Informal code reviews during git merge

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for us




• Automatic tests and metrics in the CI

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for us





• Produce release notes and technical documents

during the bug fixing phase

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for us





• Produce release notes and technical documents

during the bug fixing phase

• Functional demos

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for us


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for us


How to improve ourself?

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for us



• Internal Retrospectives

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for us




• Collect non-functional requirements

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for us





• Focused 40hrs week

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for us





• Focused 40hrs week

• Quality of code meetings (kata, randoori)

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for us


My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?

Billy Wilder16

3.Making Strength Productive


Making Strength Productive

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Making Strength Productive• Staffing from strength

Don’t care much about weaknesses

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Don’t care much about weaknesses• “Indispensable man” dilemma

Why is he indispensable?

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Why is he indispensable?• Put people before problems

The right job for the man

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Why is he indispensable?• Put people before problems

The right job for the man• Manage your boss

What can I do for him to succeed?17


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Making Strength ProductiveIt worked

for us


•How to use better your strength?

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for us



• Baby-steps

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for us



• Baby-steps

• Kaizen 改善18


for us


4.First things first

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Known Knowns

Known UnknownsUnknown Unknowns


http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDgQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcs.uno.edu%2F%7Edbilar%2Fpapers%2FBilar_09DEAESLR_KnownUnknowns.pdf&rct=j&q=unknown%20unknowns%20problems&ei=0QqbTaHDE8TCswb6-NHBBg&usg=AFQjCNHNt4E_-WbdupU8oXKzWIpxssBW3w&sig2=cVfFQ-gZi1dEd9f314ruKw






First things first

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First things first• Concentration, one thing at a time.

If there is any one “secret” of effectiveness is concentration

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• Constant review of resultsRemove the old to introduce the new

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• Constant review of resultsRemove the old to introduce the new

• PosterioritiesDecide what not to do right now

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First things firstIt worked

for us


How to keep track priorities?

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for us



• Kanban in the room

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• Web shared official tracker

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• Pit of half-baked ideas

看板21


for us






看板21


for us

Hand






看板21


for us

Hand Eye






看板21


for us

Hand Eye Wood(tree)






看板21


for us

Hand Eye Wood(tree) Thin


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for us


Where to look for the next problem?

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for us



• Is the Team happy?

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for us



• Is the Team happy?• Are the Requirements understood?

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• Is the Team happy?• Are the Requirements understood?• How is the Quality of our products?

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• Is the Team happy?• Are the Requirements understood?• How is the Quality of our products?• Is the Process fit for the People?

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for us


5.Effective Decisions

Effective executives do not make a great many decisions. They concentrate on

the important ones.23


Effective Decisions

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Effective Decisions• People start with opinions.

There are no facts if there is no agreement on the criteria of relevance.

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• Encourage hypotheses.Then test them against the facts.

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• Encourage hypotheses.Then test them against the facts.

• Appropriate measurements.More often than not the problem is in how you collect data.

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Effective DecisionsIt worked

for us


How to decide?

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for us


How to decide? • Can be postponed?

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for us


How to decide? • Can be postponed?• Figure out a general solution and

perfect it involving everybody.

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for us



perfect it involving everybody.• Recheck it in brainstorming.

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for us



perfect it involving everybody.• Recheck it in brainstorming.• Technical authorities for keeping the

design clean and consistent.25


for us


Leadership

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People tend to do what you inspect, not what you expect.


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Leadership


• Leadership is about being both strategic and operational.

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Leadership



• Leadership is about communication, openness and willingness to speak honestly and often.

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Leadership



• Leadership is about communication, openness and willingness to speak honestly and often.

• Most of all leadership is about passion.

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Leadership


Leadership

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It workedfor us


Leadership

• Guide though exampleTechnical competence.

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It workedfor us


Leadership


• Care for peopleEveryone deserve to understand

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It workedfor us


Leadership


• Care for peopleEveryone deserve to understand

• IntegrityHard work and accountability

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It workedfor us


What about Agile?

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What about Agile?

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What about Agile?

• The Manifesto is a almost desperate call to effectiveness!

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What about Agile?


• All 12 principles are about effective teams.

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What about Agile?


• All 12 principles are about effective teams.

• That’s my favorite way to assess if a team is really doing Agile.

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Thanks

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Questions?


the effective team

Technology

time record

time goes2

wasted time muda10tuesday

wasted time muda delegation

team leader

scrap of paper

room team chat11tuesday

workedfor ustoo